The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for replenishing the supplies of commodities in reservoirs or magazines, and more particularly to improvements in methods of and apparatus for introducing stacks of overlapping (preferably sheet- or panel-like) commodities into magazines which dispense the confined commodities (normally individually, i.e., seriatim) into one or more consuming or processing machines. One of the presently preferred applications of my method and apparatus is to dispense discrete blanks of paper, cardboard and/or plastic sheet or panel material for admission into packing machines for plain or filter cigarettes or other rod-shaped smokers' products
It is customary to feed successive blanks from the bottom of a stack of blanks to a cigarette packing machine, e.g., a machine for the making of containers or boxes known as hinged-lid packets. A stack of superimposed blanks is stored in a magazine wherein the bottom zone has a suitable outlet for the dispensing or withdrawal of successive discrete blanks, and wherein the top is designed to receive stacks of fresh blanks, whenever necessary, in order to ensure that the supply of piled-up blanks in the magazine is not exhausted prior to termination of a shift or prior to switching to the making of different products, e.g., packets of cigarettes confined in differently colored and/or configurated and/or imprinted containers.
It is known to combine or assemble a magazine for stacks of cigarette packet blanks with, or to incorporate such magazine into, an apparatus wherein the magazine receives stacks of fresh blanks by way of a suitable conveyor. The latter can be provided with holders or grippers in the form of jaws or claws which are movable forwardly and backwards, as well as upwardly and downwardly, in order to transport successive stacks of superimposed cardboard, plastic, paper or other blanks from a source of stacks to a location close to or in a cigarette packing machine. If the packing machine is designed for the making of hinged-lid packets (e.g., for arrays of twenty cigarettes each in a customary so-called quincunx formation), the blanks are relatively stiff and are provided with pre-fabricated slits, slots, flaps, tucks, fold lines and/or other formations which ensure the making of short, medium long or long series of identical hinged-lid packets.
Since the blanks which are about to be introduced into a packing machine are normally withdrawn from the bottom of a stack in a magazine, the stack in the magazine should not be too high (and hence too heavy) in order to avoid damage to successive lowermost blanks during withdrawal from the bottom end of the magazine. Therefore, the supply of stacked blanks in the magazine should be replenished at rather frequent intervals; this reliably ensures that successive lowermost blanks in a magazine need not carry and need not slide relative to a rather heavy accumulation of registering blanks above it.
The situation is analogous (or even aggravated) in production lines which are designed for simultaneous turning out of several rows of packets containing arrays of plain or filter cigarettes or other rod-shaped smokers' products. In such production lines, the means for making and delivering blanks for hinged-lid packets and/or other types of containers for arrayed plain or filter cigarettes or the like must meet the requirements of two or more packing machines. Thus, it is necessary to set up two or more magazines (one for each packing machine) and an equal number of magazines for reception, temporary storage and continuous dispensing of rows or files of discrete blanks to each of a battery of two or more discrete packing machines. The situation is further aggravated if the magazines for the temporary storage of two or even more discrete stacks of paper, plastic, cardboard, foil or other suitable blanks are to receive stacks of superimposed blanks from a common source. This often gives rise to serious problems and is apt to necessitate temporary stoppage of one or more packing machines with attendant huge losses in output.